Mourners honor Afghanistan veteran who suffered PTSD

Pallbearers carry Joshua Pallotta’s remains after his funeral ceremony at Ira Allen Chapel in Burlington on Monday morning. Pallotta, a soldier with the Vermont Army National Guard, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. He took his own life after an ongoing battle with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.(Photo: RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

Tom Perry, coach of the Colchester High School football team, looked out at the hundreds of mourners Monday at Vermont Army National Guard Pfc. Joshua R. Pallotta's funeral.

"Close your eyes for a moment," Perry said.

Nearly everyone did.

Perry told them to conjure up their warmest memories of Pallotta. Perry said for him, the memory would be of Pallotta, an offensive lineman, in a football practice uniform.

"That face, that sly half smile of his," Perry said. "That's the Josh I see. That's the one I will choose to remember."

Mostly, though, sorrow filled the room as family, friends and brothers-in-arms honored the fun-loving, sensitive man who came back from the 2010 Vermont Army National Guard deployment to Afghanistan struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.

A week ago, those struggles cost Pallotta, 25, his life.

"Josh took his own life," the Rev. Lisette D. Baxter told the gathering Monday morning at Ira Allen Chapel on the University of Vermont campus. "I think we ought to say that out loud ... and not whisper it so it's a secret among us."

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Left, Maj. Gen. Steven Cray, adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard, gives his condolences to Gregory Pallotta and his wife, Valerie, following the funeral for their son, Joshua Pallotta, a member of Alpha Company, who took his life after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries he sustained while serving in Afghanistan.
(Photo:
RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS
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That feeling was shared by Pallotta's parents, Valerie and Greg Pallotta of Colchester, who wept and held each other at times during the service.

Their son's obituary made a direct reference to his post-combat struggle. The couple, speaking with a reporter after the funeral, said their son was proud to serve his country, but the military needs to do more for soldiers who come home with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

"There's a song he posted on his Facebook page," Valerie Pallotta said of her son. "One line is 'They teach me how to put a uniform on, but they don't teach me how to take it off.' "

Valerie Pallotta is an officer with the Blue Star Mothers of Vermont. Monday, the group announced on its Facebook page that it had established the Josh Pallotta Fund to help other returning soldiers with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

Col. Martin Lucenti, the Vermont Guard's chief medical officer, said earlier this year that about 25 percent of the 3,000 soldiers who were part of the Guard's 2010 deployment to Afghanistan have PTSD symptoms of varying degrees.

Joshua Pallotta, who joined the Vermont Guard after graduating from Colchester High School in 2007, served in Afghanistan as a mortar man with Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

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A Vermont Army National Guard soldier carries the banner flag of the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry, 86 Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) into Ira Allen Chapel in Burlington on Monday morning for the funeral of Joshua Pallotta of Colchester. Pallotta, a soldier with the Vermont National Guard, deployed to Afghanistan in 2010.
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Most of his deployment was spent at the Herrera outpost near the Pakistan border, where his unit saw more combat action than perhaps any other Vermont contingent during the deployment.

Several of Pallotta's Guard colleagues at Herrera told the Burlington Free Press on Monday that Pallotta was in the middle of a lot of battles during his time in Afghanistan.

"My memories are of the firefights we were in, looking over and seeing him in the middle of the operation, smoke billowing around him," said Capt. Micah Kidney of Rochester, Mass. "There was no hesitation with him. He always did his best to protect his brothers."

Sgt. Steven Hernandez of Colchester stood outside the chapel after the service, watching as the large funeral entourage prepared for the trip to the veterans cemetery in Randolph.

"Pallotta was very courageous, a great man," Hernandez said. "It was an honor to serve with him."

Said Spc. Theron Twitchell of South Burlington: "He came up big when it mattered. He was there on all the big missions."

With that, the sound of about 30 motorcycles revving their engines began to fill the air.

The motorcycles belonged to members of the Combat Veterans Association, a group of former soldiers who attended every deployment ceremony for departing Guard soldiers in 2009.

Before the funeral, the group members had stood in a row along University Place outside the chapel, American flags by their sides.

Now, they would accompany Pallotta to his final resting place in Orange County.

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Riders with the Vermont chapter of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association, along with Patriot Guard Riders of Vermont, line up to escort Pfc. Joshua Pallotta, his family and friends, to his burial at the Vermont Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Randolph on Monday following a funeral service at Ira Allen Chapel in Burlington.
(Photo:
RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS
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Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or shemingway@freepressmedia.com. Follow Sam on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SamuelHemingway.